The Middle Years Programme

Preparing students for university in the 21st century

Our mission statementThe International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.

To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.

These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.

The IB Middle Years Programme, for students aged 11 to 16, emphasizes intellectual challenge, encouraging students to make connections between their studies in traditional subjects to the real world and to become critical and reflective thinkers. The MYP also fosters the development of skills for communication, intercultural understanding and global awareness, qualities that are essential for life in the 21st century.

Today, nearly 850 schools in 79 countries offer the programme to more than 400,000 students. MYP students are exceptional in that they develop a set of skills and attributes setting them apart from their peers, equipping them for a fulfilling and stimulating route through secondary education on their way to university. As the data in Figure 2 shows, students who have completed the MYP can have significantly higher pass rates in the Diploma Programme and show higher scores on assessments of their research skills, such as the extended essay.

• global-mindedness in IB students, starting with a foundation in their own language and culture

• apositive attitude to learning, demonstrating high levels of engagement, creativity, resourcefulness and active participation in their communities

• anabilitytomakeconnections between subjects and real world issues

• highlydevelopedcommunicationskills to encourage inquiry, understanding, language acquisition, and to allow student reflection and expression

• aheightened awareness of their development– physically, intellectually, emotionally and ethically.

The IB authorizes schools to offer the Middle Years Programme. In order to become authorized, schools must demonstrate alignment of their curriculum to the IB standards. The curricular framework of the MYP allows schools to meet specific state, provincial or national requirements, while maintaining the IB mission and philosophy. All teachers in the MYP must receive IB approved training. Schools are evaluated on a regular basis to ensure that they are meeting these and other requirements for the programme.

The Middle Years Programme: Fostering skills and attitudes for academic success in the 21st century

“The MYP definitely helped me prepare for the IB Diploma Programme like no other curriculum could. It made standard level courses much easier and offers a broad spectrum curriculum before you ‘specialize’ by choosing higher levels during the Diploma. I really missed MYP. ”MonischaPongrujikorn, studying law at Bristol University

“In the 21st century, the quality of an educational programme is to be judged by the quality of the instruction, the deep understanding it instils in its students and, quite importantly, by the relevance of what students learn. The MYP articulates a much needed bridge between what is typically learned in schools and the most pressing questions that

concern our societies. Attentive to adolescents’ development, the programme emphasizes rigorous learning in the disciplines and interdisciplinary synergy, inviting students to tackle relevant issues – from climate change to globalization – thus preparing them for the work of the next generation.”

VeronicaBoix-Mansilla Harvard Graduate School of Education, USA, 2008

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The MYP: A broad and balanced approach

Thebroadandbalanced programme model:

The MYP requires schools to teach a broad and balanced choice of subjects in every year of the programme, organized into eight subject groups:

• languageA(ideally,thestudent’s mother tongue)

• languageB(asecond modern language)

• humanities

• sciences

• mathematics

• arts

• physicaleducation

• technology

• provideslearninginabroadbaseofdisciplines to ensure that students acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to prepare for the future

• providesobjectivesineachsubjectgrouptoincludeskills,attitudesandknowledge in addition to the understanding of concepts; the aim is to ensure that students are not only knowledgeable about a subject area but also develop a genuine understanding of ideas and an ability to apply these in new contexts, in preparation for further learning

• promotestheprincipleofconcurrencyoflearning, whereby students deal with a balanced curriculum each year in which different subjects are studied simultaneously. As students mature and develop

higher-order thinking skills, they explore the various disciplines in ever greater depth, identifying how each are linked and establishing their relevance to local and global issues

• encouragestheuseofavarietyofteachingandlearning methodologies fostering a climate in which students discover how they learn best in different situations

• emphasizesthedevelopment of the whole person—affective, cognitive, creative and physical—and its effective implementation depends on the school’sconcernforthewholeeducationalexperience,including students learning opportunities beyond the classroom environment.

Fig. 1

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The transition into the sixth form has been helped enormously by the organizational and thinking skills that I obtained through the MYP programme of study.

MYP student Dartford Grammar School

“Candidates who wish to be stretched should, in my view, take the MYP. The rigour and work ethic it encourages will assist them strongly if they wish to progress to a degree that will require them to really engage with their subject discipline.

MikeNicholson, Director of Admissions at Oxford University, 2009

The MYP has five areas of interaction which provide it with its unique core. Teaching subject areas through these contexts allows teaching and learning to focus on attitudes, values and skills.

Approachestolearning(ATL)representslearningskills that the student will develop and apply during the programme and beyond.

Communityandservice considers how students can learn about their place within communities and be motivated to act in a new context.

Healthandsocialeducation is designed to help students identify and develop skills that will enable them to function as effective members of societies. They also learn about how they are changing and how to make informed decisions that may relate to their welfare.

Environments considers how humans interact with the world at large and the parts we play in our environments.

Humaningenuity deals with the way in which human minds have influenced the world and considers the consequences of human thought and action. Through this area of interaction students can develop ways of thinking that are a good preparation for the theory of knowledge course in the Diploma Programme.

Thepersonalproject is an important part of the MYP for all students. The personal project is a reflection ofastudent’sabilitytomanageanddirecttheirowninquiry and a reflection of the skills learned through the MYP experience. The process of completing the personal project is led by the student, with supervision by a teacher. The assessment of the personal project is asummativeassessmentofstudents’abilitytoconductindependent work using the areas of interaction as contexts for their inquiries.

The MYP: Auniqueapproachtodevelopmentofskillsandattitudesrelevantintoday’s global society

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An essential principle of IB assessment is that standards are the same worldwide.

The MYP assessment model is criterion-related in order to maintain the rigour for which the IB is renowned. Teachers are responsible for structuring varied and valid assessment tasks, based on the assessment criteria defined by the IB, that will allow students to demonstrate achievement according to the required objectives within each subject group.

The IB, in line with modern research such as that of Gardner(1999),Perkins(1995),Erickson(2002),WigginsandMcTighe(2005),andAdeyandShayer(2002),recognizes that a good curriculum will develop a range of student skills. In the MYP the IB encourages teachers to assess this acquired skill set, including exam performance. Typically, these assessment tasks include open-ended, problem-solving activities and investigations, organized debates, tests and examinations, hands-on experimentation, analysis and reflection. In all cases, the assessment is carried out

internally by teachers, according to the criteria defined by the IB.

MYPstudentsareassessedineightsubjectgroups(seeprevious section), which include maths, science, and englishatalevelequivalentto(I)GCSE.ThescaleusedistheIB’s1–7scale,where:

7=Excellent

6=Verygood

5 = Good

4=Satisfactory

3=Mediocre

2 = Poor

1=Verypoor

WhenastudenthascompletedtheMYP,theirgradesare presented in a transcript produced by the school, or in MYP records of achievement for schools opting for MYP moderation.

How are students assessed?

“The IB MYP is run by an independent international body renowned for its high standards and academic rigour all over the world... the IB MYP restores trust to teachers and schools, giving them

the freedom to develop their own courses and to decide what is best for their pupils – albeit according to the exacting standards of the IB.”

AnthonySeldon MasterofWellingtonCollege,2009

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“The skills students learn through the MYP, through ‘approaches to learning’ and the upper levels of subject assessment criteria, enhance those developed by GCSE courses, as students are given opportunities to develop higher level thinking skills in authentic situations.

DrPFidczuk,Assistant Head Teacher at Dartford Grammar School, 2010

All schools are responsible for developing appropriate assessments for their students according to the objectives and criteria published in the subject-group guides. External examinations are not provided for the MYP but schools can opt to undergo either external moderation or monitoring of assessment by the IB. In this way the assessments used can be reviewed and feedback given, highlighting those areas where the school is performing well and those areas where improvements could be made. External moderation validates the final grades and records of achievement, and awards MYP certificates. In order to issue validated subject grades the IB ensures that common standards are being applied throughout the programme by all schools.

For moderation, schools submit samples of assessed students’workfromeachoftheMYPsubjectareastogether with the personal project from the final year of the programme to IB appointed external moderators. Through this process, the IB ensures that schools and teachers are using the appropriate MYP standards in assessing their students. If moderation reveals that a school has not been meeting the standards set by the

IB,thegradesonstudents’certificatesmaybeadjusted.The aim is to provide criterion levels, and hence grades, that are properly representative of students’achievement.

Monitoring of assessment is a process that provides support and guidance to schools with regards to internal assessment procedures and practices. The schools benefit from the expertise of trained moderators and experienced MYP subject specialists. Monitoring of assessment helps schools apply MYP assessment principles to their own local practices.

Monitoring of assessment differs from external moderationandisnotlinkedtovalidationofstudents’grades. All MYP schools must participate in either moderation or monitoring of assessment.

For more information on MYP subject criteria or assessment please email myp@ibo.org

Assessment in the MYP: Rigorous criteria, applied consistently worldwide

“The IB programmes (MYP and DP) that I followed have without doubt given me a massive advantage for my university course... because I have a wider base of knowledge than most people on my course. The independent study skills that the IB has given me gives me the edge.” Oliver Thompson MYPandDPgraduate,NorthLondonInternationalSchool

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MYP teachers follow a standard global approach to planning units of work that arise from vertical and horizontal curriculum overviews. The use of this planning process enables cohesion between MYP and national curriculum requirements. It ensures that all of the required components for state and MYP provision are included, with one system of assessment informing the other. The skills, knowledge and understanding thatastudentpicksupfromaGCSEassessmentcanbe

harnessed and used in an MYP assessment in the same unit. In this way, one method of assessment informs another; schools adhere to the national curriculum but use the opportunities afforded within the MYP to both deepen knowledge and understanding, and develop skills.

Doschoolscombinenationalcurriculum,GCSEandMYPrequirements?

“Our students are now so much more aware of their learning journey. They talk freely about taking risks and recovering from mistakes. They are confident, active and willing participants in the co-curriculum in school and across the wider community.” MrWJOakes, Headmaster at Dartford Grammar School, 2010

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Figure 2: Pass rates of MYP students in the Diploma Programme (Informationsource:IBinternaldatasystems[IBIS])

The data presented here compares pass rates of former MYP students from moderating schools, with the whole cohort of DP students.

2007 2008 2009 2010

Result DPAll

CandidatesMYP

All Candidates

MYPAll

CandidatesMYP

All Candidates

MYP

Pass rate 79.3% 85.6% 79.1% 87.2% 78.8% 87.7% 78% 85.2%

Students achieving

40+6% 6.3% 6.1% 8.1% 5.4% 6.9% 5.2% 6.7%

Pass rate bilingualDipolma

25.3% 35.2% 25.4% 37.7% 24.5% 36.6% 24.1% 39.9%

ThevalueoftheMYPintermsofapproachestolearning(ATL),skilldevelopment,andexperienceinthepersonalproject, may be a contributory factor in success of Diploma Programme students in the extended essay, as can be seen from the grade comparisons below from 2010:

Extendedessaygrade

ExMYPstudents

All candidates

Overall DP score

ExMYPstudents

All students

A 18.4% 13.9% <24 10.20% 15.55%B 28.3% 24.7% 24-29 32.66% 34.15%C 36.0% 37.1 30-34 30.36% 28.74%D 16.5% 22.0% 35-39 20.10% 16.33%E 0.7% 2.3% 40-45 6.68% 5.22%

MYP: A strong predictor of performance in the DP

Fig. 2

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The MYP values both process and content, allowing us to focus on personal and academic development so growing students into confident and caring members of the community.

Mr R Matthews, Director of IB, Havelock Academy, Grimsby, 2010

ArecentstudyconductedbyAustralianCouncilforEducationalResearch(ACER)foundthatMYPstudentsoutperformedtheirpeersinnearlyeveryyearlevelontheInternationalStudentAssessment(ISA)administeredto48,000 students worldwide. The study looked at the different domains of assessment for students in Grades 4 to 11 across four domains: math literacy, reading, narrative writing, and expository writing.

MYP students out perform their peers on international assessments

Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8 Grade 9 Grade 10

600

400

200

0

non-IBIB

600

Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8 Grade 9 Grade 10

400

200

0

non-IBIB

The results indicate that MYP students outperformed their non MYP peers on the ISA across all four domains, with the strongest effects noted in Year 11 maths and expositorywriting.MYPstudents’ISA scores in Years 10 and 11 also compare favourably to Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)benchmarksinmathsand reading with MYP students performing above the average of every country except for four, for reading and above the average for all countries in maths. The study also looked at the correlation of MYP moderation scores with the ISA scores and found moderate to strong correlations across the domains.

For more information on this and other MYP studies, visit the research pages of the IB website, www.ibo.org/research

MathLiteracy

Reading

WritingTaskA:NarrativeWriting

WritingTaskB:ExpositoryWriting

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“For me, as a classroom teacher, involvement in the MYP has resulted in students acquiring a refreshing open-mindedness about their work,

their relationships with others and a mature engagement with a range of contemporary themes and issues.”

MYP represents a revolution in thinking about education, the curriculum and exams... I believe that MYP will rapidly grow, and deserves to do so, in the same way that the IB Diploma Programme has.

AnthonySeldon,MasterofWellingtonCollege,2009

Shayer,M&Adey,PS,2002(eds.). LearningIntelligence:CognitiveAccelerationacrossthecurriculum from 5 to 15 years. Milton Keynes, UK. Open University Press.

Erickson,HL.2002. Concept-basedcurriculumandinstruction:teachingbeyond the facts. ThousandOaks,CA,CorwinPress.

Gardner, H. 1999. Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21stCentury. New York. Basic Books.

Perkins, D. 1995. Outsmarting IQ: The emerging science of learnable intelligence. Free Press, Old Pappan, NJ.

Wiggins,GandMcTighe,J.2005. Understanding by Design. Expanded 2nd editon. Alexandria, Virginia. Association for Supervision and CurriculumDevelopment.

References

Mr I Davies Assistant Head Teacher at Dartford Grammar School, 2010

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For more information regarding MYP curriculum and assessment, please contact myp@ibo.org

For more information regarding regional MYP recognition or implementation in schools, please contact ibaem@ibo.org

For more information regarding IB programmes and UK universities, please contact ibaemrecognition@ibo.org

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